Format Philosophy

Please do NOT change any formatting or wording of any topic question that already has a content page or you decouple/delink that page from that topic, and we don't want that!

NOTE: Any words below colored inbold blueare hot links to the area designated. Click or tap on them to go to that area.

NOTE: If you do not want the yellow padlocksymbol that occurs after any URL that starts with https:// then just delete the "s" and the padlock symbol goes away while still linking to the same website page.

Standard text is colored blue using this code <span style="color:blue">

Every standard formatting tag typically has a closing tag at the end of where you want the initial formatting tags function to cease. Every colored paragraph has its own colored formatting beginnng and ending tags. Every <span style="color:blue"> MUST HAVE a closing tag at end of where you want that formatting to stop, such as </span>.

Quoted text is colored green using this code <span style="color:green">

Often quotations (if large enough) are put in a block quotation format with <blockquote></blockquote> beginning and ending tags with the quotation text in between. Normally in a block quotation one uses no quotation marks. Often at PoJ.fm left and right quotation marks are used to start and end a block quotation for clarity's sake evidencing that this is quoted text. It is also formatted using green text with these beginning and ending tag commands: <span style="color:green">“Block quotation.” </span>. You must put a carriage return so that the </blockquote> ending a blockquotation command rests on its own line by itself (or sometimes the block quotation does not turn off).

All editors of PoJ.fm should read about known Design and Whitespacing Features and the reasons behind these conventions at Wikimedia Design/Whitespace.

WRONG WAY: Wittgenstein might call this phenomenon family resemblances. Ending period puntuation mark is to the right of the ending hyperlink right square bracket, ]. Notice period is too far to the right past word "resemblances."

RIGHT WAY: Wittgenstein might call this phenomenon family resemblances.Ending period puntuation mark is to the left (inside) of the ending hyperlink right square bracket, ], making the period be flush up against the word "resemblances," as it should be.

“The accepted writing practice recommended by the American Philosophical Association is gender-neutral writing. Instead of exclusive, male language, use inclusive terms such as "anyone," "someone," or "a person." Generally speaking, do not use "us" or “we" because, although gender neutral, the reference remains too obscure for determining the group(s) involved or being referenced. Of course, the fact that the APA recommends gender-neutrality is not itself a reason for someone to use it. Here are some compelling reasons to adopt this practice. The words “man” and “mankind” do not refer to humanity, as former convention suggests, because they have words that overly convey masculinity. It sounds odd, does it not, to claim "a woman is a man," or even a member of mankind? Phrases such as “everyone has a right to his own property” contain a faulty pronoun reference (substitute "abortion" for "property" to see why). Similarly, the sentence "When a man is faced with a moral dilemma, he should follow Kant's advice" can be written in one of several gender neutral ways, such as, “When people face a moral dilemma, they should follow Kant’s advice" or “When one faces a moral dilemma, one should follow Kant’s advice.” When quoting writers who utilize non-inclusive language, leave their words in the original. Similarly, it is fine to use male language when explicitly talking about a male (e.g., "When Mill got older, his views diverged from Bentham's"). In all other cases, though, use inclusive gender neutral language if meaning to include all genders.”

Often philosophers simply resort to making the gender of a person in his or her example be female to help balance out all of the past philosophical writing that often used male pronouns. The policy at PoJ.fm is to promote all gender usages in examples and just vary the gender prounouns, especially she and he.

To upload an image you must already be logged in, then click on the Tools menu bar at top center right of page, then click on Upload file.

To Upload an image it must be either a .jpg, .jpeg, .png, or .gif type of file extension.

You upload from the Upload file page by clicking on the Choose File button to the right of the heading Source filename with Maximum file size of 8 MB. After choosing from the appropriate file area on your computer, be sure to go to the box below it and type in a good descriptive name for your file. The area is labeled "File description" then Destination filename. Inside of the box it says "Image.jpg," or whatever the file extension is after the period. Delete the word "Image" and replace with your appropriately descriptive file name, keeping the correct file extension in the file name after the period (either .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, or .png ONLY). To finish uploading, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the submit file button.

The ideal license for any uploaded image to Poj.fm is preferably a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. This means the pictures are completely free to be used for any legal purpose and free for personal and even commercial use. They can be modified, copied and distributed without asking for permission or setting a link to the source, so that attribution is not required.

There are many different types of Creative Commons licenses. Basically, any Creative Commons license is acceptable to be posted on PoJ.fm. For more information about Creative Commons licenses please click on it.

“Reverting involves returning a page to a previous version of its history. In the context of the English Wikipedia's three-revert rule, a revert is defined more broadly as any action, including administrative actions, that reverses the actions of other editors, in whole or in part.”

When to revert by returning to an earlier version of a page:

DO's:

Revert only when necessary.

Reverting should be taken very seriously.

Reverting is often used for fighting vandalism and similar abuse.

If you are not sure whether a revert is appropriate, discuss it first on the article's DISCUSSION page.

If you feel the edit is unsatisfactory, then try to improve it first, if possible. This may entail correcting factual information, grammar or writing style, such as trimming verbosity.

You can revert your own edit, if you realize that it is incorrect. Before reverting, be sure to check if another editor has made changes in the interim.

If only part of an edit is problematic, consider modifying only that part, instead of reverting the whole edit.

DON'T's:

NO BAD WRITING ALLOWED. Don't let superfluous or badly written material stand, in order to avoid slighting its original author. Though your intentions may be good, doing so shirks your duty to the reader.

If your material is reverted, don't take it personally. Not every fact, detail or nuance belongs in an encyclopedia.

If an edit can be improved by avoiding weasel words or re-phrasing in a more neutral point of view manner, then try to reword, rather than revert.

Do not revert solely because "there is no consensus in favour of the change." Only revert if you actually think the previous version is better.

Generally, there are misconceptions that problematic sections of an article or recent changes are the reasons for reverting or deletion. If they contain valid and encyclopedic information, these texts should simply be edited and improved accordingly.

RAISE OBJECTIONS on the DISCUSSION PAGE: It is sometimes difficult to determine whether a claim is true or useful, particularly when there are few people "on board", who are knowledgeable about the topic. In such a case, it is a good idea to raise objections on the DISCUSSION page; if there is reason to believe that the author of what appears to be biased material will not be induced to change it, editors sometimes choose to transfer the text in question to the DISCUSSION page itself, thus not deleting it entirely. This action should be taken more or less as a last resort, never as a way of punishing people, who have written something biased. See also: Neutral point of view.